


sugar coated love

by lategenocide



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Confession Letters, Fluff, Food, Height difference, I Don't Even Know, Love Letters, M/M, dectecitve work, donghyuck the little shit as renjun's best friend, renjun is a seasoned bookstore employee, renjun is protectie over sungchan, renjun small, sungchan big, sungchan is a newer employee, sungchan's more well behaved than donghyuck which isn't saying much, theres a little bit of hating on captialism, they work at a bookstore
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-13
Updated: 2021-02-13
Packaged: 2021-03-12 23:54:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,507
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29392980
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lategenocide/pseuds/lategenocide
Summary: “How does it taste?” Renjun asked, picking up one for himself. He stared at Sungchan expectantly, who nodded, a muffled compliment for the food around his full mouth. Renjun handed him one of the pieces of sugar-dusted toast as the other nodded. Sungchan hesitated.( or: renjun wonders who is sending him love letters, but the answer is already in reach. )
Relationships: Huang Ren Jun/Jung Sungchan
Comments: 11
Kudos: 90
Collections: Challenge #5 — I heard a secret..





	sugar coated love

Renjun pulled open the back door to the bookstore, a perfect ten minutes before his shift was supposed to start. The sun had yet to fully mature yet, peeking out behind the clouds like a child testing the waters in a new environment from the safety of the presence of their caretaker. 

“Good morning,” Renjun said to the only other person in the back, Donghyuck. The other grunted something akin to a greeting, his eyes glued to the phone in his hand. Renjun unlocked his locker to grab his name tag and shove his keys and wallet into it. As he did, he noticed a familiar pastel purple envelope, a royal blue wax seal closing it. Renjun picked up the envelope turning it over, just in case, there was a clue who had sent it. There wasn’t but his name stamped onto the back, character by character. 

“Another one,” Renjun mused. “Who found it this time?” He turned to Donghyuck, who paused his game and looked up.

“Oh, Sungchan found it this time when he was opening the store. He said he found it shoved under the doorway,” he replied. “What does it say?” 

Renjun ripped open the envelope, pulled out the letter in it, very carefully penned with a black pen. By the splash of black ink in the corner, Renjun fancied it was written using a fountain pen, “It’s similar to the first time.” His face flushed reading the contents of the letter, and he quickly folded it up and shoved it back into the locker, before Donghyuck could steal it from him and parade around the place, reading it out loud in his sing-song voice for anyone to hear. As much as he loved his best friend, Donghyuck was also constantly dishing out second-hand embarrassment, and he didn’t need it so early in the day.  _ Especially _ not when the subject was someone who apparently liked him when he didn’t know who it was. He’d compared the handwriting to everyone he knew last night, but no one he knew had this handwriting or had any ability in flowery prose. 

Unfortunately, although he knew many people, he couldn’t think of anyone that had shown him an interest that was anything close to the attention paid in the two letters that had arrived at his workplace. Half of him wondered if it was a prank and the other half wondered why anyone would be this interested in him in the place. As far as people went, he was pretty boring. 

Donghyuck pouted in time with the slam of Rejun’s locker, “You’re no fun.”

Renjun ignored his jab, “I have a right to privacy, thanks. I’ll go say hello to Sungchan first.” He adjusted his name tag, then pulled open the door to the storefront. He didn’t give Donghyuck any time to snicker in his ear, knowing what only those two knew. Sungchan was standing at the cashier’s desk, staring out the windows of the bookstore at the passing people in the outside world. When he heard the door open, he turned around, his face lighting up, something like a flower blooming. A smile spread over his face like butter.

“Good morning, Renjun,” Sungchan immediately took a few steps away from his post. He towered very obviously over Renjun, being several inches taller. 

“Morning,” Renjun tipped his head up, flashing a smile back. “Did the new shipment of books come in on time? They sent an email saying there might be a delay.” 

Sungchan nodded, pointing to the shelf of new books, “They came today, I’ve already shelved them. Did you see the envelope in your locker? I didn’t really know where else to put it since it’s messy in the back.” Sungchan blinked innocently. “Was it from the person from yesterday?” Renjun thought back to the cheesy, helplessly sugar-saturated letter of confession in his locker, locked away from Donghyuck’s curious eyes and robber’s hands. 

“I did, thank you,” Renjun paused, debating his word choice. “It seems like it’s the same as last time, but I’m still not sure who it is. Did you see anyone on the security cameras?” since the first letter had arrived, Renjun had spent too much time wondering who it was; he’d even gone so far as to make a chart of anyone he knew, slowly crossing out the most obvious people who could never ( starting with Donghyuck ), until he’d gone and crossed everyone out of self-doubt. 

Sungchan shook his head, “The cameras turned on at 6 AM, but I checked it when I saw the letter. There wasn’t anyone who stopped by after 6 AM.” 

“Oh,” Renjun said blandly. “Okay, thanks Sungchan.” If they hadn’t come by after 6 AM, then they would be after hours during the night.

“It could be a stranger,” Sungchan commented in an attempt to comfort him. “Hopefully they’ll reveal themselves soon.” Renjun ignored the temptation to narrow his eyes, quietly noting the odd comment in the back of his head. He’d known Sungchan for several months- they were friends outside of work- and as far as reasoning went, Sungchan was better than a lot of the friend group. 

Instead, Renjun shifted the conversation towards its end, “Maybe… I’ll be restocking if you need me, just yell.” He gestured vaguely to the rows of shelved books, some of which revealed the wooden gaps in them. 

Sungchan flushed pink in his ears, “Yeah, sure. I’ll be here.” 

  
  
  


The shift dragged on as normal, as it usually did. In between darting through the shelves to replace emptied slots, Renjun smiled through his impatience at customers with superiority complexes left unchecked and untreated. More than once, he itched to tear their throats out, but that wouldn’t have been good for his job. As much as Renjun had a violent streak, his need to live was even stronger, even in a capitalistic, broken economy. 

He passed by Donghyuck on his way into the break room for his lunchtime, slapping their hands together in faint encouragement. Sungchan was huddled up in the corner on his phone when Renjun opened the door, engrossed in whatever he was looking out for. He looked up with the wind that blew over him with the opening and subsequent closing of the door. 

“Renjun! Your lunch is there,” Sungchan smiled brightly, pointing at the plastic bag on the only table in the back. The delivery food had a receipt stapled to the bag, slashed over with a blue marker. 

“Thanks,” Renjun said, eyes curling up into a smile. He sat down at the table, pulling his lunch out of his container. Inside was his order of a milkshake, freshly made and toasted bread, and a case of pork chops over rice. He picked up a piece of the fried pork chop, his hand underneath the chopsticks in case it dropped from his grasp. “Sungchan, come here.” 

Sungchan looked up from his phone with a soft  _ hmm? _ On the tip of his tongue, but it turned into tiny little gasped  _ oh _ as he leaned over the couch he was currently lazing around on, his mouth opened into an eager “O” shape. Renjun wasted no time feeding him the pork. Sungchan fought a bit with it before he fit the entire piece in his mouth, chewing carefully. 

“How does it taste?” Renjun asked, picking up one for himself. He stared at Sungchan expectantly, who nodded, a muffled compliment for the food around his full mouth. Renjun handed him one of the pieces of sugar-dusted toast as the other nodded. Sungchan hesitated.

“It’s fine. You forgot your lunch again, didn’t you? Let’s go out for food when our shifts are over,” Renjun said, pushing the toast into his hands. He could tell when there was no leftover scent of home-cooked leftovers in the breakroom, which was more common than it really should be, but the Sungchan that Renjun knew was always particularly forgetful. He’d been working at the bookstore for several years, and Donghyuck a year or two behind him, but Sungchan was new ( and much cuter than Donghyuck, but you didn’t hear it from Renjun ). Renjun was protective of the new employees, especially if they held more common sense than Donghyuck. 

Sungchan nodded, taking a bite of his newly obtained toast. Renjun watched as his expression turned into one of the kinds of joy when one was indulging in sweets. Suddenly, Renjun thought of the letter laying in his locker, “It’s called cinnamon saccharine if you want to buy some for yourself later.” he said. Sungchan stiffened, then relaxed in quick succession- but Renjun had been friends with Donghyuck for years, so it wasn’t hard to spot.

“Oh, thanks,” Sungchan replied lightly. Renjun smiled, mentally noting the moment in his head for later dissection. In truth, the toast was just listed as  _ Sugar Toast  _ but Renjun couldn’t help but test if that phrase was familiar to the other boy sitting in the breakroom. Sungchan hadn’t been around to read either letter over his shoulder as Donghyuck had with the first letter but- he made a mental note to check the security camera for today’s feed.

Renjun passed a secret glance at Sungchan. He would figure it out somehow. 

  
  
  


By the late afternoon, more employees had come for their shift ( Donghyuck had been out of the bookstore for a few hours, rushing off to his college classes with all the enthusiasm of a tired college student- Renjun couldn’t blame him ). Renjun grabbed his wallet but left his keys in the locker for an excuse to come back later, just in case he was feeling Sherlock Holmes possess his body. 

He’d checked the security camera during a short break, but it was just as Sungchan has said- there were no signs of anyone after 6 AM. The security cameras turned off after the bookstore closed to save the owners money, which was exactly seven o’clock. There would be a large gap of time someone could drop off a letter.

“Ready? Let’s go,” Renjun shut his locker, turning to see Sungchan standing around to wait for him. He grabbed Sungchan’s hand, walking out of the back door in the direction of the bustling street market. “What do you want to eat?”

“Hot dogs? I like the ones with cheese inside,” Sungchan suggested. He trailed a step behind Renjun, looking like a giant compared to Renjun’s smaller frame. The scene looked somewhat like the owner of a ( very obedient and loyal ) large dog bringing them around on a walk. Renjun nodded his agreement, so they each got two hot dogs, chewing as they walked through the street. 

Eventually, the hot dogs were replaced with boba teas and spicy tteokbokki, popcorn chicken, and mochi doughnut holes. Renjun chatted nonchalantly with Sungchan as they made one last lap around the city block before Renjun walked Sungchan to his bus stop. 

“You didn’t forget your keys did you?” Renjun asked as the bus came appearing from down the street. Sungchan smiled, half exasperated, half fond. It was about evening, closing in on seven o’clock and the ends of sunlight had already disappeared over the city landscape. Instead, the artificial light lits up the streets of the city, illuminating both of their faces in blues and yellows. The bus slowed to a stop at the stop, the doors opening in the smooth, mechanical motion as people came on and got off. 

“I have them, don’t worry, Renjun” he patted his pockets lightly for the jingle of keys. “Good night! Make sure to get home safely.” 

“I will,” Renjun replied, nudging Sungchan towards the bus. “Go. don’t you have an essay waiting for you?” With a groan that elicited a smile from Renjun, Sungchan swiped his bus card and boarded the bus, waving to Renjun from the window. 

  
  
  


Renjun turned for his apartment when the bus was out of sight, but the moment he reached the gates of the apartment complex, he turned back, remembering that he’d left his keys in the break room on purpose. He took a turn back to the bookstore. 

The walk was another fifteen minutes. Renjun slipped into the back door with his employee’s key and turned on the lights to open his locker and grabbed his keys. Carefully he flicked on the tiny flashlight on and turned off the lights in the break room, walking towards the front of the store, and quietly unlocked the front door for easier access in case the person came in. Renjun sat in silence with the shelves on shelves of books, his heart pounding in the nothing of the closed door, right by the windows and the tightly closed blinds. 

Minutes ticked by. Renjun waited patiently.

Finally, nearly forty minutes later, there was a sound at the door, loud only in the incredible silence. A familiar envelope was pushed through the underside of the door and then suddenly, Renjun was on his feet, twisting the knob of the door to pull it back. 

And there Sungchan was, half-standing- head snapped to stare blankly at Renjun’s calm expression. A red blush flew across face and ears, rosy and glowing. It looked like he was cold, but Renjun thought about the dustings of pink when Sungchan smiled at him and wondered why he didn’t see it coming. 

He cleared his throat, “You know it’s just a lot easier to say something to my face instead of sending me letters.” 

Sungchan stood to his full height, his head bowed, “I- I wasn’t sure- I mean- I guess I’m just insecure.” Renjun picked up the letter from the envelope. He thought about Donghyuck’s snickers when he quietly admitted he had a bit of feeling for the new employee at the bookstore,  _ Sungchan _ . Donghyuck had mercilessly teased him to no end the moment he knew, but he also never failed to nudge him a little closer to Sungchan. As annoying as his best friend was, maybe he knew what was for the best because Renjun would’ve brushed off his feelings with time. 

Renjun let out a shaky, nervous breath, “Don’t feel insecure- I,” he paused, mainly for himself, but Sungchan’s bright, wide eyes were now him, attentive. He looked torn between hope and bracing himself for rejection. “I like you too, Sungchan.”

If possible, Sungchan’s milky way gaze became even more starry in the dark, “You- what?” he spoke as if he hadn’t been confessing his feelings for him for the last two days. 

Renjun wasn’t really one for repeating himself, but he supposed a few times for Sungchan was acceptable. He pulled Sungchan closer by the shirt, tilting his head up at him, “I like you too, so c’mere and let me kiss you, you giant dumbass.” 

With that said, Renjun heaved himself up taller on his tippy toes and pressed a soft kiss to Sungchan’s mouth. He could feel the disbelieving frost in Sungchan’s form melt under his hands, and a soft laugh escaping Sungchan’s throat. 

And then he was kissing him back. His hand curled at Renjun’s waist. 

**Author's Note:**

> i hope you liked the fic! if you wanna share your thoughts, i will hoard all of them like a gremlin <333


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